The SodarF3D™ is specifically designed for the wind energy industry to deliver visibility of the wind profile on site. The unique design of the SodarF3D delivers excellent performance in complex or simple terrains. Providing insights into the wind profile in various conditions and assessing sites for development suitability are some of the benefits of Fulcrum3D’s Sodar.

Wind Speed Data (uncalibrated and unfiltered)

Wind Direction Data (uncalibrated and unfiltered)

F3D Locations

Product Options

The SodarF3D™ is more flexible than a Met Mast, and lower cost than a Lidar. The SodarF3D provides data on wind conditions including wind speed, wind direction, wind speed vector standard deviation and inflow angle (related to vertical wind speed). Data from optional sensors such as temperature, humidity, pressure, solar radiation etc. is also provided.

SodarF3D is the best priced Sodar on the market. The flexibility of the SodarF3D and its optional equipment adds significant value to your development, operational performance or other applications.

Benefits

1SodarF3D delivers precise, validated and bankable wind data

2Flexible and simple

Generally does not require a planning permit to install, enabling more data captured and faster. The easily portable unit allows monitoring at a number of locations around your site to significantly reduce uncertainty.

3Terrain flexible

Performs well in complex and simple terrain and housed in a robust, portable unit.

4Cost effective and efficient deployment

More flexible than a Met Mast, lower cost than a Lidar. Significantly cheaper than a Hub Height Mast – in some cases half the cost.

Site suitability and inflow angle measurement

In complex terrain, wind turbines can experience significant inflow angles which are not measured using traditional anemometry

This has a significant effect on turbine yield and turbine life

Reliability assessment

Directly measure wind regime across a turbine to understand long term reliability and causes of regular failures

Analyse the forces impacting the turbine by measuring wind inflow angles across the entire rotor swept area

Results can be used to adjust operating modes under challenging wind conditions to reduce repair and maintenance costs

Power curve performance testing

Full testing as SodarF3D allows EVERY turbine to be tested ensuring that the entire wind farm meets performance requirements

This allows operators to secure compensation for under-performing turbines

Unlike Met Masts where the cost of installation means power curve performance testing is rarely carried out on all turbines

SodarF3D a unique design with superior functionality

Design

The SodarF3D is unique in its design.

By covering the entire turbine area, SodarF3D has a significant advantage over traditional wind monitoring equipment using masts.

A compact-beam Sodar which uses mechanically fixed beam angles to maximise accuracy and reliability of results. The beam geometry is optimised for use in both flat and complex terrain where traditional Sodars lose accuracy due to the variable wind vectors over the sensed air volume

The physically fixed beam angles eliminate errors introduced in electronically steered Sodars, where the steering frequency must be adjusted to take into account local temperature effects. In addition to eliminating temperature related errors, this minimises side lobes and therefore allows for a more compact system

The SodarF3D design allows multi-beam sampling where all three beams can be sampled simultaneously. This effectively triples the sampling rate and can significantly improve data accuracy and availability

The SodarF3D is software defined and fully flexible – all the data analysis intelligence is held on the server-side rather than on-board the SodarF3D unit, so the operating algorithms and software upgrades can be remotely applied for optimum results

Auxiliary sensors can be added and operating frequency changed to allow multiple units to be co-located without interfering with the performance of others.

Functionality

A standard Sodar works by sending out a sound pulse (beep) and listening to the returned sound signal as it’s scattered back towards the Sodar by atmospheric turbulence. You can listen to the sound pulse here. The principle, is similar to Radar.

The three sound beams of the SodarF3D allow a three dimensional wind vector to be measured. After the pulse is transmitted, the SodarF3D begins recording the returned sound signal and various filtering techniques are used to eliminate false data, background noise, errors introduced from rainfall and other factors.

The SodarF3D measures wind speed, direction and inflow angle in 10m height intervals from 40m to 200m above ground level, which aligns with the height of modern wind turbines. For each height range, data quality and other measurement statistics are calculated every 10 minutes.

The wind speed, direction, inflow angle, and height range are then calculated based on:

The time delay from when the beep was transmitted to when it was received, which indicates the sampling height (based on the speed of sound);

The change in frequency between the transmitted and received sound on each sound beam, which is caused by the wind vector along each beam axis (due to the Doppler effect);

The known angles of the three sound beams, together with the wind vector along each beam, which is interpreted to produce a three dimensional wind vector.

This wind vector is then translated into wind speed, direction, and inflow angle in each height bin. More complex analysis allows the wind speed standard deviation and turbulence index to be calculated. The SodarF3D transmits a sound pulse approximately every 1.5 seconds, giving a large number of samples which are then analysed to generate 10 minute statistics.

The SodarF3D is a portable unit, mounted on a standard box trailer, and powered by its own low-maintenance solar battery system. It is supplied with on-board remote telemetry, for a set-and-forget solution which reliably provides accurate data to your desktop.